Blood dripped and splattered on the counter staining it red. The biomedical student then leaned over to measure the diameter of the fake blood and determine the height it fell from. 

Students could take Principles of Biomedical Sciences for the first time during the 2022-2023 school year, and as planned, the second class will be offered next year. Human Body Systems is the second course on the Project Lead the Way (PLTW) biomedical track and will be taught by biology teacher Mary Summers. 

“I think that it’s really good because then people that want to go into the medical field can venture those opportunities,” sophomore Catherine O’Connor said. 

The class covered a variety of topics, three of the biggest being forensic sciences, clinical care and how to handle the spread of an unknown bacteria in a hospital setting. This class exposed students to skills for a career path that wouldn’t otherwise be specifically covered in the classes offered at Miege. 

“I’ve actually been really excited and wanting to [teach the class] for the last couple of years because it just has so many cool things that I think students want to learn, but we didn’t have any other class that could offer that for them.” Summers said.

This class utilized hands-on activities to teach the topics and have students become more involved with their learning. 

“I really enjoyed how there was some just work, but there was also a good amount of hands-on stuff,” O’Connor said. 

Summers said that the learning process was more student-led than her usual classes and sophomore Emilia Olsen agreed, especially when it came to labs. 

“[Summers] really let us get hands-on with the experiments, which was nice, and she wasn’t super overbearing about it,” Olsen said. “She just let us figure it out.” 

The labs and topics covered in the class are designed to prepare students for the next PLTW biomedical track classes.

“There were a lot of things that would have crossed over into certain aspects of medical school,” Olsen said. “[Our teaching assistant, Emily Knaus] was talking about how a lot of the things that we were learning, her friends in the medical programs at college were learning too, which was really interesting.” 

After taking the Principles of Biomedical Class, students will be able to take the next class on the PLTW track, Human Body Systems. This class will mainly cover orthopedics and athletic training and will be available to students for the 2023-2024 school year. The two classes following Human Body Systems on the PLTW track have not yet been announced by Miege. 

I initially signed up [for the Principles of Biomedical Sciences class] because I know that I want to go into the medical field, and I figured it would be some good experience.” O’Connor said. “Next year is the human body systems and I feel like that’ll ready me more and give me even more experience.”  

Olsen also plans to take the next class after her experience in the first one. 

“I really enjoyed the class, and I liked what we learned in there,” Olsen said.  “It was just overall a fun experience.”